The Ig Nobel Prizes: And the winner is…

The 2009 Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony was held today in Sanders Theater, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts. According to their website the

“Ig Nobel prizes honor achievements that first make people laugh and then make them think.”

This year’s winners were as hilarious as usual. My favourite winners this year were:

Veterninary Medicine, “cows who have names give more milk than cows that are nameless”; Biology: “kitchen refuse can be reduced by using bacteria extracted from the faeces of giant pandas” (apparently the fact that the panda poo is not stinky was a key factor in the experiment), Peace: “determining by experiment whether it is better to be smashed over the head with a full bottle of beer or with an empty one”; and my favourite was the Ig Nobel prize for Physics for work examining “Why pregnant woman don’t tip over”.

If you have never visited their webpage and are up for a chuckle, you will be able to find the links to studies that have shown things like “Coca-Cola is an effective spermicide”, and “High priced fake medicine is more effective than low-priced fake medicine”.

Past winners are listed here, and the names and list of the current winners should appear soon.